A/N: I don't think I've ever had this much trouble with a chapter before. I've written and rewritten, edited, and chopped; and I've thrown in the towel twice and swore it was over. The characters wouldn't let me do this my way. I wanted this chapter to go in a completely different direction, but in the end I didn't have much choice - they overruled me. I know exactly where this story is going, but sometimes I think D/E are taking me on a few twists and turns to get there, and I keep repeating the phrase; more twists and turns than Chubby Checker in a blender. See, I'm going a little crazy.

Here's chapter 4. Sorry, I'm tired and making Captain Obvious statements.

Chapter 4

Elena curled up on the couch and started to read Damon's book on Saturday afternoon. She'd already been jogging, swimming and spent several hours in the office, and now she wanted to curl up with a book. She'd meant to pick up Why Pleasing Your Man In Bed should Be Your Top Priority, but instead picked up Why You Should Sleep with the Bad Boy. Out of curiosity she turned the first page, and then the second page, and then she found that she kept turning page after page until she was halfway through the book. It surprised her that his book was well written and interesting. The man had a sarcastic wit that clearly shone through the writing, and she giggled out loud several times.

The idea behind the book was compelling; the bad boy is not Mr Right so it is far easier to relax and enjoy sex with him because there isn't the usual pressure of trying to move the relationship forward. The bad boy isn't someone to settle down with; he isn't marriage material and should never be treated as such. Without the pressure of making a relationship work, one can have fun experimenting and take full advantage of the bad boy's sexual experience to learn a few tricks to please Mr Right.

She'd finished the book by dinnertime, and as she heated up a frozen meal Elena contemplated whether she had it in her to go after a bad boy. The question played on her mind over the following days, and unwittingly she found herself thinking frequently of the man who had written the book. During the daylight hours she could force her mind back onto work; however, at night her dreams were filled with images of the bad boy author doing all kinds of wicked things to her. Somehow reading his book had unlocked the door to her unconscious fantasies and now her brain was telling her she wanted to do all of those things with Damon Salvatore. It was not appreciated considering she simply wasn't allowed to sleep with him.

On Wednesday morning, Elena woke up feeling more than just a little hot and bothered after a particularly erotic dream in which Damon had been doing all kinds of things to her in the shower. She jogged for an extra thirty minutes to run off the tension, and said silent thanks for the fact that she didn't have a meeting scheduled with her client until Friday. That gave her two days to focus on what she could do for him as a publicist, and not all the ways he could satisfy her as a man.

Damon pulled up outside Mystic Falls PR and prepared himself mentally for seeing his pretty publicist again. She'd been on his mind since Friday night and even though he didn't have a meeting scheduled with her for a couple of days, he'd decided to pay her an earlier visit. He was keen to put his plan into action; once she was with someone, safely in some kind of a relationship with a man, he wouldn't be able to seduce her. He was still fighting against the thoughts of giving in to his lower urges and pursuing her. Fighting his nature to sleep with a woman did not come naturally to him, and he questioned everyday why the hell he'd made himself her protector. It wasn't like he owed her anything. If it had been anyone else, he wouldn't have thought twice about taking what he wanted and to hell with the consequences. Something about this woman, however, sung out to him that she needed to be protected.

As he rode the lift up to Elena's floor he told himself he would protect her from Katherine, he would protect her from himself, and he could cope with not sleeping with one member of the female population. And if he couldn't get her out of his head and a small part of him just wanted to see her again, it didn't really matter.

He didn't have an appointment and he knew she wouldn't be happy about that. Elena seemed like the kind of woman who would struggle to deal with doing anything remotely impulsive. That was too bad; he'd come to take her to lunch and he wasn't taking no for an answer.

Caroline's eyes lit up when they saw him. "Hi Damon…I mean Mr Salvatore…I mean…"

"Call me Damon," he told her, smiling at her until she smiled back. "Is Elena busy? I want to take her to lunch."

Caroline looked down at the book in front of her which he assumed held the information for Elena's meetings. "She has a meeting in thirty minutes," Caroline told him helpfully.

He leaned in slightly, and gave her his most charming smile.

"Can we push it back, say thirty minutes?" he asked.

"Umm…"

"You see Caroline, Elena has assured me that I will be happy with her services and I was really hoping I could speak to her about some ideas I had."

Caroline bit her lip and frowned slightly. "I should speak to Elena before I change anything…"

"You push the meeting back, and I'll deal with your boss," he told her, with a wink.

"Okay," Caroline said with a smile. Then she leaned in and whispered conspiratorially. "You are her new number one client, and she does want to keep you happy."

"Thank you Caroline. You have been extremely helpful," he assured her. "Now I'm going to go and tell Elena exactly how helpful you've been," he told the girl.

"She's on the phone…"

He was already moving towards her office, "I'll wait outside."

Damon stood just outside her door and listened to her conversation. She was obviously speaking to a client.

"Yes, Tyler, I'm handling it. No, I assure you there is nothing to worry about…of course. All you need to do is concentrate on your date tonight…yes I think she'd like that." He heard her laugh lightly. "You know I'll take care of everything…okay. Have fun tonight."

He'd heard Katherine on the phone doing business, and she wasn't like that. Katherine was extremely efficient, but she was also cool and sometimes abrupt. Elena on the other hand sounded warm and reassuring. It was easy to believe that the publicist genuinely cared about her client. Was Elena like that with all her clients, or just with Tyler? Did Elena care about him as more than a client? He didn't like the idea; if he was going to try hooking her up with someone, it would make it easier if she wasn't pining away for this Tyler guy.

Elena hung up the phone from Tyler to find Damon Salvatore leaning in her office doorway. His pose was casual, but his eyes were intense as they met hers. Her first reaction was shock. She thought she would have two more days to get a handle on her indecent thoughts before she saw him, and to see him standing there had her shower fantasy from this morning flashing before her eyes in vivid detail. Heat settled low in her belly, and she resented it immediately.

"Damon, I wasn't expecting to see you. We don't have a meeting scheduled today."

She had been striving to sound polite, but she thought she sounded a little brusque. She hoped he wouldn't notice.

"We do now. Caroline scheduled one for us."

If her tone had been a little sharp, his sounded just as clipped.

"I don't understand," she told him.

He walked into her office and picked up the stress ball that was sitting on her desk.

"I thought I'd take you to lunch."

He began to throw the ball up and catch it. She stood up, walked over to him and caught the ball mid-air, before moving quickly away from him. "I don't date clients."

"I'm not asking you for a date," he said with a frown, as if the idea of asking her out had never even crossed his mind. Elena told herself she shouldn't feel insulted. "Consider it a business lunch," he told her.

"Business?"

"Yes," he told her, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, crossing his arms over his chest. "I wanted to talk to you about the radio show."

"Right," Elena said, looking at her diary, "I do have a meeting…"

"Caroline postponed it."

She stared at him. "She wouldn't do that without consulting me first."

"Well she didn't want to at first, but I assured her it would be fine."

She felt her body grow hot, but now it wasn't from desire, it was from anger. "That was an important meeting…"

"If it was that important, Caroline wouldn't have changed it. Besides, your assistant thought that since I am your new number one client, and you want to keep me happy, that it would be okay."

She felt furious at being put in this position and she wanted to say no just to see that arrogant smirk wiped off his face, but he obviously did want to talk business and admittedly she did want to keep him happy.

"I suppose I can give you an hour," she said reluctantly, not caring if he knew she was less than impressed about it. The man was obviously far too used to getting his own way.

His answering smirk grated on her. "An hour is all I need."

They went across the road to Ric's Bar and Grill and ordered lunch. Almost as soon as they were seated, Damon started talking to her about the radio show he'd been approached about. He was concerned that there had been no follow-up. Elena was relieved she'd spent time looking into it, so she actually had something to tell her client.

"When I spoke with RCW last week they assured me that they are still interested, but they feel the time isn't right at the moment."

"What does that mean exactly?"

Elena gave him a confident smile. "It simply means they need to be reminded why they contacted you in the first place."

"How do we do that?"

From Elena's research into Damon's interview appearances in the past six months, it was evident that Wylder PR had been somewhat neglectful of their ex-client. While Damon Salvatore was still a name most people were familiar with, his popularity had started to decline. Elena had every confidence that she could turn that around quickly, providing her client was willing to do as she told him and get to his interviews on time.

"The Oscar Wentworth show is just the beginning," she told him. "I'm currently working on several more big TV spots, and we need to make the most of the local interview circuit."

Damon nodded, but she could still see the doubt in his face that it would happen. She didn't think twice about leaning forward and putting her hand lightly over his. "I will make this happen for you," she promised him.

It was something she would have done with any other client, but she had forgotten that Damon was not any other client. As his eyes met hers, she felt the electricity between them, and removed her hand immediately, feeling as if she had been zapped.

Damon studied his publicist. It was clear she believed what she was saying; she would make it happen for him. He couldn't help but be impressed with her dedication towards her work. She had a warm and easy attitude; she was thorough, and she'd already handled his publicity better than he thought she could. He liked her. The thought made him uncomfortable. Lust, he knew and understood, but adding like to the pile of growing feelings he had about the woman didn't make him feel overjoyed about helping her find a man that wasn't him.

Her quick glance at her watch now, reminded him that he had limited time in which to bring up the subject. He'd spent a lot of time contemplating what to say; he'd even planned the conversation out in his head several times. The problem was he still didn't have an answer on how to approach this. It wasn't like him to not know what to say to a woman, but normally he was able to us his charm. He couldn't use charm on Elena, however, because she'd see through it, and he wanted to avoid any temptation either way. As it was, when she'd first seen him today, he'd seen desire flash across her beautiful features. Just that look had been enough to kick his libido into overdrive. He'd originally thought that keeping Elena out of the game with Katherine was best, but now as he sat face to face with her he couldn't help but think the only thing to do here was be honest.

"Katherine doesn't like you," he said to her, before popping a fry in his mouth.

Elena sat back in her chair, reeling a little from his bluntness. Tact was clearly not his strong point. She supposed he didn't really need it; he made a living out of 'telling the truth'.

"That's…that shouldn't be relevant to what you feel about my work."

"It's not."

Katherine's feelings were unfortunate, but they were not Elena's concern, and it wasn't an appropriate conversation during their business meeting.

"Then why bring it up. What Katherine says about me behind closed doors is something I don't need to know about," she told him coolly.

"I think it is. She wants you gone."

"What?" She was sure she hadn't heard him properly.

"She sees you as a threat. She doesn't want to compete."

Elena tried to keep a handle on the rage building inside her. Katherine had gone too far this time, and Elena would have to stop her…somehow.

"So what are you saying?" she asked him, trying to keep her voice level. "You think I should leave?"

"Not at all."

"Just because Katherine doesn't like me very much does not mean I'm just going to pack my bags and leave Mystic Falls PR."

"Katherine wants you gone; there's zero you can do about it…"

"That's…"

"But I'm offering you my help on this one."

Her head was reeling again. None of this made sense. "How are you going to help me?"

"You need a man. I'll help you get one."

If she'd had anything in her mouth she would have spat it out. "I don't need help getting a man."

He didn't say anything, just raised both eyebrows at her. Her cheeks flamed as she remembered how he'd seen her fail to pick up the other night. She was mortified he thought she needed his charity, but she was also confused; how was getting a man going to stop Katherine from coming after her? What were his motives in all of this?

"Why would you help me?"

"I like you, and Katherine shouldn't have her way all the time."

"She's done this before?"

"She's Katherine; she loves playing games."

"I still don't think I understand."

"Does it really matter?"

"Yes."

"Fine, Miss I-Have-To-Know-It-All, I'm helping you because you're helping me." Damon thought it was far simpler to explain it that way than to tell her he had some strange need to protect her. She'd be more likely to believe he was doing it for some kind of pay-off anyway.

"That's my job," she said, but she was nodding. "And I need you to find me a man because…?"

He gave her a wolfish grin. "So I remember to keep my hands off you."

Elena sucked in her breath. She had pushed him for an answer, but she hadn't expected that one, and his words had caught her off guard. To hear him admit he wanted to put his hands on her only reminded her of how much she wanted him to touch her; of the need she'd experienced as she dreamed about him just this morning.

"You need to stop doing that," he said harshly.

"Doing what?" she asked, confused.

"Looking at me like that."

Elena flushed furiously as she realized he knew she'd been thinking about him; that she'd been thinking about sex with him. He could read her far too easily, and she obviously needed to learn how to mask what she was feeling a little better. They were far too sexually aware of each other already, and her transparency would only make things worse.

"Katherine wants me to seduce you and I don't resist temptation well," he told her.

"You think you could seduce me?" Her question sounded like a challenge and she wished she could take it back as soon as she'd asked it.

"We have something, Elena, an attraction, and yes, I think it would only be too easy for me to get you to act upon it."

She wanted to hate him for his arrogance, but she didn't. He was being honest, brutally honest, and he was probably right. Without this new knowledge, she might have only been able to hold out on the attraction for so long, but how could she possibly sleep with him now that she knew Katherine wanted her to? He'd done her a favor. She didn't know why. The man had an odd habit of surprising her.

"Thank you for your honesty," she told him.

"I wouldn't thank me for anything yet," he said seriously. "Katherine tells me that you'll be promoted if I'm happy with your…work?"

Elena nodded.

"Get me my radio show and I'll tell Elijah I'm impressed. In the meantime, take my advice on men, and you'll have one in no time. You get your promotion, and I stop finding you so…distracting."

"Sounds like you've got it all figured out."

"Yup, I'm awesome."

"Modest too," she said, raising an eyebrow at him.

His answering smile was genuine and it made the butterflies dance in her stomach. This one man had thrown her world completely into turmoil and truthfully, and she didn't like it or quite know how to act. She wasn't entirely comfortable with the situation, but she didn't know how to get around it either. If she wanted to play with the big boys and impress Elijah, she had to do well with this client. He wanted that radio show and she would get it for him. That was business. That was easy.

However, things were decidedly more personal now that he'd told her she was a temptation and he thought he could seduce her. She didn't understand his motivations for telling her about Katherine, and she didn't feel comfortable having him involved in her private life, but did she have a choice? If she told him she didn't want his help, would he make it his mission to seduce her? She couldn't afford to put him offside. She couldn't afford for him to pursue her. She needed this to work.

Putting a positive spin on the situation, she told herself that a resource like Damon didn't come along very often. She would make the most of it.

"How are you going to help me with my manhunt?" she asked him.

"Can you meet me here tomorrow after work?"

She only hesitated for a short moment before she nodded.

"Tomorrow I'll give you a few pointers, and then Friday night I'm having a small party; you can come along and meet some of the guys."

Elena tried not to look alarmed. Damon Salvatore did not have small parties. He had raging catastrophes that caused his publicists no end of grief. Well at least if she was there she'd know what she was covering up.

"Don't look so scared. You can bring Blondie."

"Blondie?"

"Caroline. I saw you two at the bar on Friday night. I assume she's your friend."

Elena nodded again.

"She looks like a girl who likes to have fun," he said to her.

Right now his expression was purely predatory, and it left little doubt in Elena's mind that the man in front of her would get almost anything he went after. What would it have been like, she wondered, if he had tried to seduce her? The thought both frightened and thrilled her. She wanted to think she wouldn't be the easy prey he was used to, but she was relieved she wouldn't have to find out exactly how fast she might have fallen to his charms.

Caroline, on the other hand, might get to see exactly how charming Damon Salvatore could be. Elena wondered, not for the first time that night, what kind of relationship Damon had with Katherine. If she were to guess, she would say it was an open relationship; albeit a pretty disturbing one too, going off what Katherine had asked Damon to do. Hopefully, Damon would not hook up with Caroline. The rule of not dating clients didn't apply to clerical staff, which was unfortunate because she wanted to warn the man off her assistant. If Caroline hooked up with Damon it would be awkward, and Elena would most likely be subjected to hearing all about their sexcapades in graphic detail. Caroline was a sharer.

Elena finished her meal quickly and paid for their lunches. Despite Damon's protests, it had been a business lunch, and she insisted that the company pay for it. Once the bill was settled she said a quick goodbye and rushed back to the office. Even though he'd warned her about both himself and Katherine, she realized he was still dangerous. He said he didn't resist temptation well, and so she would need to make sure she didn't give him any reason to be tempted, for both their sakes. Maybe she'd meet someone at his party on Friday night; maybe she'd even find the nerve to go after a bad boy; a bad boy that was not her client.

Damon bought himself another beer from the bar after Elena had gone. He figured he deserved it after doing his good deed for the day. She had left him in a hurry and he couldn't blame her for that. At least she realized that the less time they spent together right now, the better. He was an excellent teacher, and he hoped his publicist would be a quick study, because his resistance was already strained, and this good guy act could only last so long.

A/N: Thanks to Summer Fairy for putting up with my maudlin emails and trying so hard to pull me out of my funk this week :)

Well it's late here, and I'm off to bed. Happy Valentines Day. I hope you're all having a wonderful day. Thanks for reading and please review.